VRBOReviews 2,004

VRBO/Homeaway has lost it's way. It has merged with so many competitors that it now has a near monopolistic position and it is taking advantage of homeowners and guests.

I have 7 properties listed in a competitive market. I am paying over $1200 on most listings because I need to be at the upper subscription levels because there are nearly 1500 rental listings in my market. Subscription prices continue to rise without any corresponding level of service or booking effectiveness

All the properties are continually upgraded, have high ratings and we respond within an hour to inquiries. Despite this booking levels have dropped.

Training of staff must be nonexistent because nearly every time I interact with VRBO/Homeaway I receive incorrect information. Wait time to speak with someone can be an hour.

As other users have noted, other websites allow 360 reviews, both owners and guests can review each other. Fortunately we screen our guests well and probably have been lucky so we've only had a couple of instances with difficult guests and one threatened to write a bad review if we didn't give them money. I wouldn't succumb to blackmail and had to write a response but the bad review held and I had to apologize to neighbors for their unruly behavior.

They have taken a transparent operating platform where users could understand where their property would be listed and what costs would be. Now the new algorithm means you have no idea where your property will appear in listings. You also can't get a straight answer on the new service fee.

Now they claim they need to charge a service fee to guests to cover their costs. No they don't. I've worked in finance so I understand their business. It is clear that they have gotten greedy. In my market you can have someone manage and lease your property for a fee of 20%. With the new service fee on top of the high subscription costs and the low level of performance my equivalent percentage costs is 18%. My time is more valuable than 2%. I'm letting my subscription lapse tomorrow.

Congratulations VRBO/Homeaway, you've pushed and pushed on the fees and I have had enough.

Like so many of the other reviews here... VRBO has deteriorated to a vestige of its former self. In addition to all that has been reported, I have discovered that there have hidden my listing, and one reviewer reports. I have refused to do online booking and home away payments. My 5 star business and super hosting practices, not withstanding, my inquiries have dropped to nothing, when I started complaining. I have now repeatedly been unable to pull up my listing on mine and others mobile and iPad devices. The agents I have spoken with at VRBO have delivered the worst customer service I've ever seen... that is, if you can stay on hold long enough to actually talk to someone!

I am a rental house owner.
HomeAway deactivated our listings last Friday afternoon without any warning. In an e-mail after the fact, HomeAway stated that our listing "contains messaging directing travelers to pay offline to avoid our online secure booking checkout system in violation of our content guidelines." That statement was incorrect on two facts: we only advised travelers that there were options available; and once I was able to find a working link to their "content guidelines" I found no such restriction. (I did print out the guidelines in case they try to alter them later.) Nevertheless we deleted the wording immediately and asked for our listing to be reactiavted. However, their "special team" that handles such cases conveniently does not work on weekends, so our listhings have been missing all weekend and as of now (Wednesday late afternoon) only one has been re-activated. Every time we call they inform us that they can't estimate when our case will be reviewed. It is extremely frustrating.

We have been among their top 5% earners for 9 years now and introduced many guests to their site, this is how we are rewarded? We have demanded a refund of our subscription for the time lost, but that is probably a hopeless cause. I have also suggested that they make their services optional, like HA's trip insurance used to be. I let them know that we've had several guests state that although they have been using VRBO for years (one since the 90s), they will be looking elsewhere in the future; there is a deep-seated animosity to the Ticketmaster business model. If travelers truly value their services, they will opt-in. But again, this seems a lost cause.

We feel that HomeAway/Expedia doesn't care about owners any more because basically they feel they don't need to. It is time for us to find other websites with some owner focus. We are joining HomeEscape dot com which is a new site operated by some HomeAway refugees. It is free but not well known, so we plan to let as many people as we can know about it. Please spread the word and let us know if you know any other options.

Very upsetting to us as we own our cabin and rent it in Northern Michigan. We signed up for VRBO to be able to advertise and get bookings for our cabin. This "Travelers Fee" that has been added in February 2016 is outrageous! Our guests will not pay a dime of this! I just sent our an email to all of our already booked guests for summer 2016 to let them know what has happened and to tell them to not pay this fee to VRBO! It does nothing for them, and we don't receive any additional benefits from this charge! This as a vacation home owner has put us into a very stressful spot! We will be looking for another website for our rental and will never use vrbo again! I would be in favor of a class action suite on this! We as home owners should not have to now back track and explain to our guests!

We need a federal investigation.
This used to be a good service at a fair price.
Then the rental agency businesses consolidated and theres no competition. The new owners realize they have a captive audience, so they can increase revenues by 700% by creating a fictious need for a 6 to 9%"service fee" on top of the annual subscription fee of $495. Bull$#*!.

This is just another example of corporate greed.

We need competition. We need a class action lawsuit.

By now we have all caught onto HomeAway/VRBO/Expedia's schemes. This has been in the works for years as any of us know who have been forced to do things with the sites due to "customers wanting it". It never mattered what "us" as homeowners wanted. I was even told once that as a homeowner I was not a customer (shocking), but now I get it. We have choices and I have spent time looking at them. I have 5 rentals with HomeAway/VRBO for now. I have put one rental on Trip/Advisor...$400 for the year and they don't charge you extra for their other sites. They don't charge the customers any fees when you have an annual subscription and you bill your customers directly (site has good functionality). I am testing another property on AirBNB (site not as good, but workable)where I have chosen no annual fee and they charge me 3% fee on booked reservations and they also charge the renter. In the end we have all been disrespected by HomeAway/VRBO and even if changing I lose some functionality and may even end up having the new companies charge the fee to my customers... I feel good knowing I have enough self respect to leave a company that clearly does not value us as home owners. The fact that they don't communicate to us until a month after they put the fee in place and still make the fee look confusing proves that out. Another item they forget to mention in the communication yesterday is that only about 55% of the properties on HomeAway/VRBO are having the fees charged to customers. The other 45% have not signed up for online booking/online payments, thus no customer fees are being charged. Remove the online booking/online payment function (if you can) while you decide what is best for you.

As an owner of a condo listed on VRBO, I was very happy with their service until Expedia bought them and focused on sucking profit from both owners and renters alike. Last year I had a 90% rental rate. Since Expedia took over, I have only gotten one referral. Now they are charging a booking fee to guests above the owners rental rate. They are forcing owners to upgrade, or you get virtually no referrals. Try another site like vacationhomerentals.com or other sites which don't charge a fee for booking your vacation.

I just filed a complaint with consumers affairs about vrbo.com charging guests unethical fees of up to 10% of the rental fee.
This new fee was not part of the contract that I agreed to in November of 2015 when I renewed for the 3rd year. This poor business decision has already cost me 4 bookings. I encourage everyone listed on vrbo.com to file a complaint with consumers affairs, and take their credit card information off of vrbo.com account page so no auto renewals.

As a property owner, I subscribed to VRBO's service on an annual basis after determining what rates I need to charge to be competitive with other vacation rental owners, B&Bs, and motels in the area. During my subscription period, VRBO unilaterally and without notice started charging a service fee that no longer makes the property owner competitive without reducing our rates. This is an unfair trade practice that is damaging their subscribers. At the very least, they should advise owners well in advance of their annual renewal and give us the opportunity to shop around for a better service. I urge owners to deactivate their automatic renewal and immediately delete payment options. If VRBO treats their loyal property owners this unfairly after years of subscribing, how would they treat an occasional or one-time guest?

I have been with vrbo since it started, way back at the lake in virginia. So over 20 years. They sold and it was fine, now they started fees for everyone out the bucket here. They charge owners over 1200 a year - plus pay for your featured listing - at 199 a month, then they have charged us approximatly 10% credit card fee ( you know they are only being charged about 1%) and a fee of 25 each month- not sure what that one is yet.
Then they charge the poor consumer - over 10% to book with them - crazy
So we are reporting to the attorney general in our state- we suggest consumers and owners everywhere do this- they have to disclose fees- to the consumer and us- since we are the consumer of vrbo on the back end- they have not each month- our bills just say suddenly this and that...
We may want to move this up federally for overcharging for credit card fees.
This has to end fast- let their big fees go to their attorneys- who will be kept very busy suddenly... It is illegal in our state. - might be in yours also- but does not hurt to open an investigation- especially if tons of people turn them in the same month.
Consumers who paid the fee can complain to their state as well.
In the meantime- consumers should call the owner- not the 888 number on vrbo- that is them and they know nothing about our homes... if you book straight with the owner - you may be able to not pay that fee- alot of us owners are mad they are charging you.

I have been using homeaway/vrbo for about 7 years. Not for much longer. A good friend of mine who manages over 20 properties and about to take on another large complex is going to bail as well. Vrbo has way overstepped its bounds in taking my property advertisement from me. There are a so many unethical issues I dont have time to detail, negative bug placed over my ad, removing my ad from search list be of alleged out of dare calendar, blocking easy access to MY CLIENTS email addresses. Vrbo is acting lime these properties are theirs. Advise finding another ad web site. They are trying to for e owners to "book it now" so they can collect a hidden booking fee.